OHI Science | Citation policy
This document summarizes some of the results of the OHI 2016 global assessment.
Scores are broken down as follows: 1. Description of reference datasets and figures * Complete datasets (developed for website) * Figures that provide an overview of scores 2. The global picture * Average global goal and index scores across years 3. A closer look at the regions * Regional goal and index scores for 2016 4. Change over time: five year trends in scores 5. Comparison of assessment years (what’s changed do due to changes to models and/or data sources) 6. A closer look at goals
These datasets and figures include the complete data for the OHI 2016 assessment.
Data files to generate content for http://www.oceanhealthindex.org/.
Output files:
Some details about the files:
File includes the EEZ (updated in 2012-2016), Antarctica (most recently calculated in 2015), and High Seas (most recently calculated in 2014) data. However, years 2012 and 2013 do not have Antarctica or High Seas data. And, the same High Seas and Antarctica data are used for years 2014, 2015, and 2016.
Region 0 is the global average scores, which are calculated using an area-weighted average of the scores (status, likely future state, and score dimensions) for EEZ, Antarctica, and High Seas regions.
Region 300 is the eez average scores, which are calculated using an area-weighted average of the scores (status, likely future state, and score dimensions) for the EEZ regions.
This carpet plot figure (available as high resolution png provides a full overview of the scores from 2016 assessment.
Another resource that can be useful for examining scores is this interactive plot. These plots can be used to (some example screen shots):
explore the distribution of scores 
compare different goal scores 
observe change over time 
This section describes global patterns in index and goal scores. If you are more interested in what is happening at the region scale, skip to the next section.
(NOTE: Livelihood and economy goals are not included here)
Overall, there weren’t dramatic changes across years.
The Index score for 2016 (eez area weighted average of region scores) was: 71. This value was essentially constant from 2012 to 2016.
I haven’t done a formal analysis, but it looks like over time:
| goal | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Index | 70.9 | 71.3 | 70.9 | 70.9 | 70.5 |
| Artisanal opportunities | 76.6 | 76.9 | 77.2 | 77.2 | 77.2 |
| Species condition (subgoal) | 91.1 | 91.1 | 91.1 | 91.2 | 91.2 |
| Biodiversity | 90.8 | 90.8 | 90.8 | 90.9 | 90.9 |
| Habitat (subgoal) | 90.4 | 90.5 | 90.5 | 90.5 | 90.6 |
| Coastal protection | 87.8 | 87.7 | 87.7 | 87.6 | 87.3 |
| Carbon storage | 79.2 | 79.2 | 79.2 | 79.2 | 79.3 |
| Clean water | 74.2 | 73.7 | 73.6 | 73.5 | 73.5 |
| Fisheries (subgoal) | 53.2 | 53.5 | 53.5 | 52.9 | 53.4 |
| Food provisioning | 53.3 | 53.6 | 53.7 | 52.9 | 53.2 |
| Mariculture (subgoal) | 30.1 | 32.8 | 33.7 | 32.8 | 31.9 |
| Iconic species (subgoal) | 65.2 | 66.4 | 66.4 | 66.8 | 65.5 |
| Sense of place | 60.1 | 61.5 | 61.7 | 62.3 | 61.6 |
| Lasting special places (subgoal) | 56.1 | 57.7 | 57.8 | 58.5 | 58.4 |
| Natural products | 59.0 | 58.0 | 56.5 | 53.2 | 48.0 |
| Tourism & recreation | 49.9 | 48.7 | 45.3 | 48.1 | 49.2 |
This section explores goal and index scores at the region level. I mostly focus on the 2016 scores.
This interactive table describes the index and goal scores for the regions in 2016 (and a link to a color coded table, and a csv file can also be downloaded).
The median index score was 68. The highest score was 91 for Howland Island and Baker Island, and the lowest score was 44 for Sierra Leone.
The following histogram describes the distribution of overall index scores:
The regions with index scores of 80 or greater are:
| country | Index |
|---|---|
| Howland Island and Baker Island | 91 |
| Jarvis Island | 89 |
| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 88 |
| Christmas Island | 85 |
| Seychelles | 85 |
| Palmyra Atoll | 85 |
| Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) | 85 |
| Macquarie Island | 84 |
| Northern Saint-Martin | 84 |
| Cocos Islands | 83 |
| Glorioso Islands | 83 |
| Germany | 83 |
| New Caledonia | 82 |
| Prince Edward Islands | 82 |
| Crozet Islands | 82 |
| Kerguelen Islands | 82 |
| Heard and McDonald Islands | 82 |
| Norfolk Island | 81 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 81 |
| American Samoa | 81 |
| Aruba | 81 |
| Australia | 80 |
The regions with index scores of 50 or less are:
| country | Index |
|---|---|
| Eritrea | 50 |
| Senegal | 50 |
| Lebanon | 50 |
| Algeria | 50 |
| Republique du Congo | 49 |
| Guinea Bissau | 49 |
| Liberia | 48 |
| Nicaragua | 47 |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | 47 |
| Guinea | 45 |
| Ivory Coast | 45 |
| Libya | 44 |
| Sierra Leone | 44 |
Map png files can be downloaded here.
(Maps of goal scores will be presented later)
Color-coded table of 5 year trends available here, and a corresponding csv file. This is calculated using a linear model of scores for each region/goal over the past 5 years. Positive values indicate potentially increasing scores during the past 5 years and negative values indicate potentially decreasing scores.
NOTE: Currently, these data include the livelihoods and economies goal but this trends should probably be calculated without this goal.
The global average suggests a slight (but, probably negligeable) decrease in index scores during the past five years (-0.11), but there was a good deal of variation among regions. The following histogram describes the distribution of trends in index scores:
The 10 regions with the largest increases in index scores are:
| country | trend |
|---|---|
| Prince Edward Islands | 5.26 |
| Glorioso Islands | 3.23 |
| Tokelau | 2.71 |
| Mozambique | 2.46 |
| Samoa | 2.32 |
| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 2.22 |
| Solomon Islands | 2.05 |
| Tuvalu | 2.04 |
| Wallis and Futuna | 1.99 |
| Tonga | 1.82 |
The 10 regions with the largest decreases in index scores are:
| country | trend | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Sint Maarten | -2.37 |
| 212 | Saba | -2.42 |
| 213 | Ukraine | -2.46 |
| 214 | Sint Eustatius | -2.48 |
| 215 | Saudi Arabia | -2.56 |
| 216 | Norway | -2.56 |
| 217 | Finland | -2.64 |
| 218 | Equatorial Guinea | -2.98 |
| 219 | Estonia | -3.06 |
| 220 | Eritrea | -4.36 |
Here is a summary of the mean and standard deviation of the trends for different goals:
| goal | mean trend | sd trend |
|---|---|---|
| Index | -0.0924091 | 1.1826416 |
| Artisanal opportunities | 0.1703636 | 0.4172632 |
| Species condition (subgoal) | 0.0108182 | 0.0832187 |
| Biodiversity | -0.0203182 | 0.3694663 |
| Habitat (subgoal) | -0.0510138 | 0.7398197 |
| Coastal protection | -0.3630588 | 2.3081069 |
| Carbon storage | -0.0187838 | 0.0884785 |
| Clean water | -0.1435000 | 1.1309845 |
| Economies | 1.0139216 | 2.3537731 |
| Livelihoods & economies | 0.6586765 | 2.4298048 |
| Livelihoods | -0.0445098 | 1.5420581 |
| Fisheries (subgoal) | 0.5097727 | 2.1771129 |
| Food provisioning | 0.4900909 | 2.1767134 |
| Mariculture (subgoal) | 0.0564000 | 1.9816608 |
| Iconic species (subgoal) | 0.1445960 | 0.4535518 |
| Sense of place | 0.5692273 | 2.9193522 |
| Lasting special places (subgoal) | 0.7630000 | 3.9437809 |
| Natural products | -3.7691406 | 9.7389830 |
| Tourism & recreation | -0.3442647 | 3.7713096 |
These scores require a closer look, but possible patterns include: * Scores for the artisanal opportunities goal appear to have increased by relatively small amounts for the majority of regions * Scores for the fisheries goal appear to be increasing for the majority of regions * Scores for the natural products appear to be overall decreasing, but there is a lot of variation, and some regions have had large increases * Tourism trends vary strongly from region to region * Lasting special places trends are fairly variable due to large increases in scores for a few regions
The following is a comparison of the global status scores generated for 2015 by this year’s assessment vs. last year’s assessment.
If the models and source data remains the same, these scores should be exactly the same. Differences indicate changes in methods or source data (described here).
These changes do not reflect changes in actual system health!
The following goals had the largest changes:
The rest of the goals/subgoals changed by less than 3 points.
| goal | assess2015 | assess2016 | change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Artisanal opportunities | 62.92 | 73.53 | 10.61 |
| Species condition (subgoal) | 85.18 | 92.78 | 7.60 |
| Biodiversity | 86.52 | 90.35 | 3.83 |
| Habitat (subgoal) | 87.90 | 87.91 | 0.01 |
| Coastal protection | 85.64 | 85.53 | -0.11 |
| Carbon storage | 78.42 | 78.42 | 0.00 |
| Clean water | 73.47 | 73.47 | 0.00 |
| Economies | 87.65 | 87.65 | 0.00 |
| Livelihoods & economies | 82.46 | 82.46 | 0.00 |
| Livelihoods | 77.28 | 77.28 | 0.00 |
| Fisheries (subgoal) | 54.91 | 50.48 | -4.43 |
| Food provisioning | 54.25 | 50.50 | -3.75 |
| Mariculture (subgoal) | 25.44 | 31.53 | 6.09 |
| Iconic species (subgoal) | 59.27 | 62.11 | 2.84 |
| Sense of place | 58.66 | 58.93 | 0.27 |
| Lasting special places (subgoal) | 58.54 | 56.41 | -2.13 |
| Natural products | 48.71 | 50.91 | 2.20 |
| Tourism & recreation | 48.29 | 46.98 | -1.31 |
This colorcoded dataset compares the 2015 index scores generated for each region and goal between this year’s and last year’s assessment.
Although a goal may have had little average change, some regions may have very different scores.
Because these are index scores, changes reflect updates to pressure and resilience scores as well as status.
The following plot provides an overview of how the 2015 scores changed between the 2015 and 2016 assessment.
Some general pattern in these data: * Fisheries/Food provisioning: Lots of changes all over the place due to changes in source data * Artisanal opportunity: consistently increased for most regions due to change in reference point
This section takes a closer look at each goal/subgoal. I do not include goals that are comprised of multiple subgoals, although the subgoals are described.
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Cayman Islands | 100 |
| United Arab Emirates | 100 |
| Qatar | 100 |
| Bermuda | 100 |
| United States | 100 |
| Kuwait | 100 |
| Norway | 100 |
| Ireland | 100 |
| Saudi Arabia | 100 |
| Brunei | 100 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Ivory Coast | 46 |
| 212 | Solomon Islands | 45 |
| 213 | Cameroon | 45 |
| 214 | Mozambique | 44 |
| 215 | Comoro Islands | 44 |
| 216 | Madagascar | 44 |
| 217 | Benin | 44 |
| 218 | Togo | 43 |
| 219 | Guinea | 43 |
| 220 | Liberia | 42 |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Northern Saint-Martin | 98 |
| Aruba | 98 |
| Curacao | 98 |
| Cayman Islands | 98 |
| Ascension | 98 |
| Bahamas | 98 |
| Saba | 98 |
| Montserrat | 98 |
| Bonaire | 98 |
| Turks and Caicos Islands | 98 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Vietnam | 82 |
| 212 | Singapore | 82 |
| 213 | Eritrea | 82 |
| 214 | Cambodia | 81 |
| 215 | Oecussi Ambeno | 81 |
| 216 | East Timor | 81 |
| 217 | Libya | 81 |
| 218 | Myanmar | 80 |
| 219 | Sudan | 80 |
| 220 | Iraq | 78 |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Macquarie Island | 100 |
| Kerguelen Islands | 100 |
| Heard and McDonald Islands | 100 |
| Norfolk Island | 100 |
| Tuvalu | 100 |
| Pitcairn | 100 |
| Wallis and Futuna | 100 |
| British Indian Ocean Territory | 100 |
| Suriname | 100 |
| Russia | 100 |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Howland Island and Baker Island | 100 |
| Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) | 100 |
| Aruba | 100 |
| Curacao | 100 |
| Tuvalu | 100 |
| Pitcairn | 100 |
| French Polynesia | 100 |
| Wallis and Futuna | 100 |
| Netherlands | 100 |
| British Indian Ocean Territory | 100 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Albania | NA |
| 212 | Sao Tome and Principe | NA |
| 213 | Montenegro | NA |
| 214 | Turkey | NA |
| 215 | Syria | NA |
| 216 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | NA |
| 217 | Lebanon | NA |
| 218 | Algeria | NA |
| 219 | Republique du Congo | NA |
| 220 | Libya | NA |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Seychelles | 100 |
| Northern Saint-Martin | 100 |
| Germany | 100 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 100 |
| Aruba | 100 |
| Netherlands | 100 |
| Bahamas | 100 |
| Suriname | 100 |
| South Africa | 100 |
| Russia | 100 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Sao Tome and Principe | NA |
| 212 | Montenegro | NA |
| 213 | Turkey | NA |
| 214 | Syria | NA |
| 215 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | NA |
| 216 | North Korea | NA |
| 217 | Lebanon | NA |
| 218 | Algeria | NA |
| 219 | Republique du Congo | NA |
| 220 | Libya | NA |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Heard and McDonald Islands | 100 |
| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 99 |
| Kerguelen Islands | 99 |
| Falkland Islands | 99 |
| Bouvet Island | 99 |
| Jarvis Island | 98 |
| Macquarie Island | 98 |
| Howland Island and Baker Island | 97 |
| Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) | 97 |
| Crozet Islands | 97 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Israel | 33 |
| 212 | Guatemala | 33 |
| 213 | Belgium | 32 |
| 214 | India | 29 |
| 215 | Benin | 29 |
| 216 | Lebanon | 29 |
| 217 | Slovenia | 28 |
| 218 | Togo | 28 |
| 219 | Monaco | 24 |
| 220 | Gibraltar | 20 |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Tuvalu | 96 |
| Nauru | 96 |
| Palau | 95 |
| Mayotte | 91 |
| Oecussi Ambeno | 91 |
| Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) | 90 |
| Finland | 90 |
| Maldives | 89 |
| Seychelles | 88 |
| Solomon Islands | 88 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | El Salvador | 19 |
| 212 | Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island | 18 |
| 213 | Mauritania | 17 |
| 214 | Barbados | 17 |
| 215 | Western Sahara | 16 |
| 216 | Guinea | 16 |
| 217 | Wake Island | 12 |
| 218 | Turks and Caicos Islands | 9 |
| 219 | Jan Mayen | 6 |
| 220 | Bouvet Island | 3 |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Russia | 100 |
| Ecuador | 100 |
| New Zealand | 100 |
| Norway | 100 |
| Chile | 100 |
| China | 100 |
| Faeroe Islands | 100 |
| Iceland | 99 |
| Belize | 94 |
| Canada | 72 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Sudan | NA |
| 212 | Somalia | NA |
| 213 | Dominica | NA |
| 214 | Republique du Congo | NA |
| 215 | Guinea Bissau | NA |
| 216 | Liberia | NA |
| 217 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | NA |
| 218 | Guinea | NA |
| 219 | Ivory Coast | NA |
| 220 | Sierra Leone | NA |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Cayman Islands | 100 |
| United Arab Emirates | 100 |
| Qatar | 100 |
| Bermuda | 100 |
| United States | 100 |
| Kuwait | 100 |
| Norway | 100 |
| Ireland | 100 |
| Saudi Arabia | 100 |
| Brunei | 100 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Ivory Coast | 46 |
| 212 | Solomon Islands | 45 |
| 213 | Cameroon | 45 |
| 214 | Mozambique | 44 |
| 215 | Comoro Islands | 44 |
| 216 | Madagascar | 44 |
| 217 | Benin | 44 |
| 218 | Togo | 43 |
| 219 | Guinea | 43 |
| 220 | Liberia | 42 |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Howland Island and Baker Island | 100 |
| Jarvis Island | 100 |
| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 100 |
| Palmyra Atoll | 100 |
| Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) | 100 |
| Macquarie Island | 100 |
| Northern Saint-Martin | 100 |
| Glorioso Islands | 100 |
| Germany | 100 |
| Prince Edward Islands | 100 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Bouvet Island | 0 |
| 212 | Benin | 0 |
| 213 | Iraq | 0 |
| 214 | Syria | 0 |
| 215 | Sudan | 0 |
| 216 | Somalia | 0 |
| 217 | North Korea | 0 |
| 218 | Eritrea | 0 |
| 219 | Liberia | 0 |
| 220 | Libya | 0 |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| New Caledonia | 100 |
| Suriname | 100 |
| Mozambique | 100 |
| India | 99 |
| Iran | 98 |
| French Polynesia | 97 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 97 |
| Germany | 96 |
| Italy | 96 |
| Latvia | 96 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Guernsey | NA |
| 212 | Benin | NA |
| 213 | Iraq | NA |
| 214 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | NA |
| 215 | Guinea Bissau | NA |
| 216 | Liberia | NA |
| 217 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | NA |
| 218 | Guinea | NA |
| 219 | Ivory Coast | NA |
| 220 | Sierra Leone | NA |
| country | score |
|---|---|
| Seychelles | 100 |
| Northern Saint-Martin | 100 |
| Antigua and Barbuda | 100 |
| Aruba | 100 |
| Malta | 100 |
| Curacao | 100 |
| Vanuatu | 100 |
| Maldives | 100 |
| Bahamas | 100 |
| Saba | 100 |
| country | score | |
|---|---|---|
| 211 | Crozet Islands | NA |
| 212 | Kerguelen Islands | NA |
| 213 | Heard and McDonald Islands | NA |
| 214 | Ile Europa | NA |
| 215 | Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island | NA |
| 216 | Johnston Atoll | NA |
| 217 | Clipperton Island | NA |
| 218 | Bassas da India | NA |
| 219 | Ile Tromelin | NA |
| 220 | Bouvet Island | NA |